th very few exceptions; and, were it even better, the want of
harbours would render it less valuable.

"Whilst this whale-boat was absent I had occasion to send the
colonial schooner to the southward to take on board the remaining
property saved from the wreck of the ship _Sydney Cove_, and to
take the crew from the island she had been cast upon. I sent in
the schooner Lieutenant Flinders, of the _Reliance_ (a young man
well qualified), in order to give him an opportunity of making
what observations he could amongst those islands; and the
discoverys which was made there by him and Mr. Hamilton, the
master of the wrecked ship, shall be annexed to those of Mr. Bass
in one chart and forwarded to your Grace herewith, by which I
presume it will appear that the land called Van Dieman's, and
generally supposed to be the southern promontory of this country,
is a group of islands separated from its southern coast by a
strait, which it is probable may not be of narrow limits, but may
perhaps be divided into two or more channels by the islands near
that on which the ship _Sydney Cove_ was wrecked."

The exploring cruise in a whale-boat had lasted from December 3rd, 1797,
to February 25th, 1798, and we have before us a log kept by Bass of the
voyage. Bass describes in detail all that Hunter tells in his despatch,
but the intrepid explorer scarcely mentions the hardships and dangers with
which he met. Incidentally he tells how the boat leaked, what heavy seas
were often successfully encountered, and how "we collected and salted for
food on our homeward voyage stormy petrels" and like luxuries.

Flinders meanwhile, as Hunter says in his despatch, had been sent in the
colonial schooner _Francis_ to bring back the castaways [Sidenote: 1799]
from the _Sydney Cove_, who remained anxiously waiting for succour on
Preservation Island. On the way down the young lieutenant discovered and
named many islands and headlands--the Kent group, the Furneaux group, and
Green Cape are only a few names, to wit--and he came back fully convinced
that the set of the tide west "indicated a deep inlet or passage through
the Indian Ocean." He had no time on this trip to make surveys, but on his
return to Sydney he found that George Bass had just come in in his
whale-boat with his report. Hunter and the two young men agreed that the
existence of the strait was certain, and that the next th